Tag Archives: chocolate

The Best Banana Bread Ever

3 Replies

I’ve made a lot of banana baked goods in my time.  I’ve made vegan almond banana bread, banana spelt muffins, baked chocolate banana doughnuts and most recently grain-free peanut butter banana bars.  But my latest banana creation is so good that the Englishman declared it was the best banana bread ever.

Best Banana Bread StackI really love baking with spelt, and I think the spelt flour contributed to the success of this banana bread.  Combine that with a touch of peanut butter, some olive oil, honey, pistachios and chocolate chips, and you have a winning combination.  The best part of this bread is that it’s egg-free so you can whip it up in a flash, and if you want to make it vegan, just swap the honey for maple syrup and use dairy-free chocolate chips.  So easy.

I’ve been making this bread almost weekly, and the Englishman takes it to work for mid-afternoon snack.  I also happen to know based on personal experience that this bread is excellent with some ice cream (a la bread pudding).

If pistachios aren’t your thing, pecans also go nicely in this bread.  Or you can just omit the nuts all together.

For now I’m just going to keep declaring this the best banana bread ever until I come up with something else to nab the title.  It’s that good.

Best Banana Bread The Best Banana Bread Ever (makes 1 9×5 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tbsp peanut butter

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp raw pistachios

Handful of chocolate chips (basically as many as you want!)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment or coat with cooking spray.

Mash your bananas in a mixing bowl with a potato masher or a fork.  Add your honey, water, olive oil, peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. In another mixing bowl add your spelt, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and continue to mix well.  The dough will be nice and thick (I generally use my stand mixer, but good ol’ fashioned elbow grease works too).Best Banana Bread MixerGently fold in your pistachios and chocolate chips and continue to mix until well blended.

Add your mixture to your loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Best Banana Bread Ever ParchmentBake for 50 minutes and remove from the oven and let it cool (if you can wait that long).

Best Banana Bread SlicesSlice, eat, repeat.  The best banana bread ever.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

6 Replies

Once upon a time a group of food bloggers got to talking and thought it would be fun to do a cookie swap (because who doesn’t love cookies?).  And so, the Coast to Coast Cookie Swap was born.  After much deliberation, I decided to make loaded oatmeal cookies.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies Close UpThe idea for the loaded oatmeal cookies came from the Starbucks Outrageous Oatmeal Cookie.  Every time I go to Starbucks I eye that cookie, but after finding out it had soybean oil in the ingredients, I realized I would have to make my own “outrageous” oatmeal cookie if you will.

For Christmas I made Chocolate Oatmeal Pecan Cookies for my swap with Natalie, so this time I thought I’d take it a step further and make a loaded oatmeal cookie with all sorts of fun things like raisins and nuts. As you can tell from my chicken scratch, I was a bit undecided on what exactly I wanted in the cookies.

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies RecipeThis recipe yields about 40 cookies, so if you don’t want to make as many then I recommend cutting the recipe in half.  These cookies also taste great frozen or with a glass of almond milk!

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies MilkI’m so glad that we did the Coast to Coast Cookie Swap!  It was the perfect opportunity for me to make some delicious loaded oatmeal cookies as well as try other treats from my wonderful food blogger friends!

Here’s the rundown of what all the bloggers made:

Foodologie – Molasses Ginger Apricot Cookies

In Natalie’s Shoes – Glorified Chocolate Chip Cookies

Urban Chick’s Foodie Ventures – Peach Cobbler Cookies

Jazzy Jonez – Lemon Blueberry Cookies

And below you can find the recipe for my loaded oatmeal cookies!

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies (makes roughly 35-40 cookies)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup coconut oil, softened
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
2 tbsp almond milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Lightly grease two baking sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. In a mixing bowl blend your flour, ground flaxseed baking powder, baking soda and oats and set aside.

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer (or you can whisk by hand) beat your coconut oil until creamy and begin to fold in your maple syrup.  Add your eggs one at a time and continue to mix until well blended. Add your milk, vanilla and salt to your wet mixture and then slowly fold in your dry ingredients.

Lastly add the chopped pecans, raisins, coconut and chocolate chips and continue to mix until everything is nicely combined.

Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheet and flatten.  Place cookies in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Remove cookies from oven and let cool, then enjoy!

Loaded Oatmeal Cookies PlateWhat’s your favorite cookie recipe?  Share in the comments!

Baked Chocolate Banana Doughnuts

3 Replies

Once upon a time I bought a doughnut pan and was so excited that I made pumpkin doughnuts the next day.  And then Sidecar Doughnuts came to town and my life was suddenly filled with maple bacon, chocolate ganache and huckleberry goodness.  As much as I love Sidecar, they certainly aren’t the healthiest doughnuts in town, so I decided it was time to dust off the ol’ doughnut pan and make baked chocolate banana doughnuts.

Baked Chocolate Banana Doughnuts PlateTruth be told, this recipe for baked chocolate banana doughnuts was kind of thrown together at the last-minute.  I was watching the live stream of the 14.2 Crossfit Open WOD and when I heard it was Overhead Squats and Chest-to-Bar pull-ups, I immediately panicked and decided I needed a baked good in my life in a bad way.  As per usual, we had some overly ripe bananas on our counter, so baked chocolate banana doughnuts were born.

Since my spelt banana muffins came out so good I decided to use spelt again in this recipe.  Add in some chocolate chips, a little honey and an egg, and you have a delicious baked doughnut as a health(ier) treat.

Baked Banana Doughnut TrioThis recipe actually yields 10 doughnuts, but since my doughnut pan only holds 6, I improvised and made muffins with the remaining batter.  The muffins were just as tasty as the doughnuts, so if you don’t have a doughnut pan, make muffins instead!

Baked Chocolate banana Doughnuts and MuffinsBaked Chocolate Banana Doughnuts (makes 10 doughnuts)

Baked Chocolate Banana Doughnuts PinIngredients:

2 medium ripe bananas

1 cup spelt flour

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 tbsp honey

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Mash your bananas in a mixing bowl with a fork.

Add your egg, honey, canola oil, water and vanilla to the mixing bowl.  Mix all ingredients until well blended.

Add your spelt flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and continue to mix until the mixture is nice and creamy.

Pour into your greased muffin tins or doughnut pan and place in the oven for 20 minutes.  The doughnuts will be lightly browned once they are done.

Baked Chocolate Banana Doughnuts TwoRemove doughnuts and enjoy!

What’s your favorite doughnut flavor?  I do love the Buttermilk Old-Fashioned at Sidecar.

Paleo Chocolate Almond Flax Cookies

4 Replies

I came to the startling realization that it has been far too long since I posted a cookie recipe on Sweet Potato Bites!  After the Christmas cookie extravaganza I went on a bit of a cookie detox, but I recently found myself craving cookies once again.  So I decided to do an updated version of my Power Cookie recipe, and created Paleo Chocolate Almond Flax cookies.

Paleo Chocolate Almond Flax CookiesLike my power cookies, these paleo chocolate almond flax cookies are on the healthier side, because my wedding is less than 3 months away (!) and I have a lovely dress to fit into.  With the exception of the chocolate chips, there’s no added sugar in these cookies and they are made with good things like ground flax and almond flour.  There’s also a little bit of butter in these cookies, but butter makes everything better.

Paleo Chocolate Almond Flax CookiesPaleo Chocolate Almond Flax Cookies (make 12 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

2 tbsp water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Melt your tablespoon of butter over low heat and set aside.  In a mixing bowl add your almond flour, flaxseed, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and mix until there are no lumps.

Add your melted butter, egg, water and vanilla to the mixture and continue to blend.  Fold in your chocolate chips.

Spoon your mixture onto your baking sheet and flatten each cookie slightly with the palm of your hand.  The mixture will be a bit sticky so you may need to wet your hands a few times as you form each cookie.

Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned.

Remove from oven, cool, and enjoy.

Paleo Chocolate Almond Flax CookiesWhat’s your favorite healthy cookie recipe?